PEACEFUL NORTH-WEST CHEERS AVAP

By JACKSON MAPAPAYI THE Anti-voter Apathy Project (AVAP) in North-Western Province has described the political environment in the region as peaceful. AVAP provincial coordinator, Cranes Kasito, said all political parties and their candidates were going about their campaigns freely. Mr Kasito stated that the campaigns were violence-free. “As an organisation, we have been going round in all the districts in the province and so far so good,” he said. Mr Kasito however said that presidential candidates for all political parties were not doing enough in selling themselves to the  electorate. “We have seen more activities on the part of parliamentary candidates, councillors and council chairmen and not presidential candidates. That’s our worry,” he said. Mr Kasito also called on police to reduce on motorised patrols saying it was intimidating the electorate.      “Especially in Solwezi, we have seen heavy motorised patrols which at the end of the day seems to instill fear in the electorate,” he said. He advised the Electoral Commission of Zambia to intensify on voter sensitisation ahead of the August 12 polls.